Flower Stores that Reflect the Yuletide Spirit. 



NTICIPATING the rush of 

 business which the holi- 

 days at the year's end 

 bring, florists are full of 

 preparatory plans for 

 handling the orders at that 

 time. They will shortly 

 be busy with decorations 

 installed before the holi- 

 days, some in business 

 houses and some in stores of size simi- 

 lar to their own. Do they realize, at 

 this busy time, the value of decorating 

 their own stores and of making such 

 other preparations as will carry to 

 passers ' and patrons ' 

 minds the spirit of the 

 day that causes these 

 preparations? To no 

 other class of stores, in- 

 deed, is presented the 

 opportunity to do so 

 much in reflecting the 

 Christmas spirit by the 

 use of its own merchan- 

 dise, without appreciable 

 extra expense. The op- 

 portunity seems, indeed, 

 to be one of which none 

 in the trade should fail 

 to take advantage. 



Exterior. 



Though every florist 

 makes some decoration 

 for this season, this 

 varies in degree in dif- 

 ferent stores. Many, a 

 great many, fill their 

 windows with baskets of 

 red foliage and plants 

 tied with red bows and, 

 having seen a plenty of 

 the bright color them- 

 selves, go no farther. 

 In fact, flower store decoration for the 

 Yuletide is apt to consist of but little, 

 if any, more than display of plants and 

 baskets which are to be sold at the 

 holiday. 



But there is much more tliat can be 

 done. In the window, for instance, 

 wreaths and holly and other greens can 

 be used 'to give a real Yuletide appear- 

 ance. A Christmas tree, decorated with 

 florists' materials instead of tinsel and 

 gilt trinkets, can be made the center of 

 a display, consisting, for the rest, of 

 the plants and baskets which the store 

 offers for gifts. No better tree trim- 

 mings are to be found, indeed, than the 

 dyed grasses and foliages which most 

 florists use. Other touches can be added 

 to make the window one really sugges- 

 tive of the coming holiday. 



Some florists employ evergreen 

 branches and green festooning to orna- 

 ment the outside of their store at this 

 time. The effect is not lost on patrons 

 or passers-by, you may be sure, and now 

 that less of this is done by other sorts 

 of shops, the distinction it gives to the 

 florist's place of business in a row of 

 stores is productive of sales. 



In the Store. 



It is in the store that least efforts 

 are usually made, although here they 

 would be greatly to be desired. Every 

 Christmas of late years, many people 



who enter flower stores depart without 

 buying. Why? The price is too high? 

 Not so much that as that the florist has 

 not endeavored to sell his wares so 

 strongly that the visitor could not re- 

 sist. The sentiment that offsets price 

 was not played up powerfully enough 

 to overcome that ever-present obstacle 

 in the purchaser's mind. 



Easy Extra Susiness. 



"I don't need to bother about those 

 people," says a florist. "I've got all 

 I can do without their orders." But 

 he would not refuse their orders if they 

 were proffered. And without extra 

 sales force he could get many of them 

 by reflecting so compellingly the Yule- 

 tide spirit in his store that the visitor 

 would feel that flowers must be a part 



of his or her own celebration of the 

 holiday. This can be done in any flower 

 store by means of effort extremely slight 

 in comparison with the returns. 



What is necessary is that which is 

 called "atmosphere." The florist 

 creates it for many a social event, 

 many a banquet and in many a home. 

 He can do it easily in his store. If he 

 makes his plans now, he will not spend 

 valuable time on this when every minute 

 is precious. It is not too early now to 

 put up such decorations and they may 

 be left until the rush is over. 



The necessary decorations will take 

 space, and, says the 

 retailer, every square 

 foot is precious. To 

 a certain extent, this 

 is true. But that senti- 

 ment can be carried too 

 far. It will not do to 

 pack a store full of 

 blooming plants, in the 

 hope of letting each 

 customer pick out his 

 own. There should be 

 a complete assortment, 

 from which the customer 

 can indicate his choice 

 of arrangement. 



Beliance. 



The florist will see that 

 an exact duplicate is 

 sent. If his word is not 

 taken by the customer 

 that such will be done — 

 well, that florist should 

 do some missionary work 

 in the way of educational 

 advertising during the 

 ensuing year. It should 

 be the florist's object, 

 however, to see that 

 the plantvS in the store are the same as 

 those he intends to send out and that 

 there are not some extra "fixings" on 

 them that the buyer will not see on the 

 plant delivered to him. 



If tlie florist arranges his plant as- 

 sortment in the store so that customers 

 may view them without handling them 

 over and over, and does not sell the store 

 specimens, necessitating their replace- 

 ment with other plants, he will have 

 ample space for patrons to look about 

 easily, without crowding and without 

 damaging stock, and he will have am- 

 ple space for decorations that will give 

 his store a real Christmas atmosphere. 



To acliieve this last, there are a num- 

 ber of things he may do. One of the 

 simplest of course is to place a Christ- 



